President Donald Trump said at a Thursday cabinet meeting that Iran has gifted the United States several “big boats of oil” during ongoing negotiations to end the conflict.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that Iran gave the U.S. “a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” but did not offer any details. At the cabinet meeting on Thursday, he revealed that Iran first gave the U.S. eight oil-filled tankers, which sailed up the Strait of Hormuz this week, and then added two more. The delivery, he said, was part of the ongoing negotiations to end the war.
While answering a reporter’s question about deadlines, Trump said, “we have very substantial talks going on with respect to Iran.” He then turned to address negotiator and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, asking “Steve, can I reveal the present?” before continuing.
“They said to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re going to let you have eight boats of oil. Eight boats. Eight big boats of oil,” Trump said. “This was two days ago. And they’ll sail up tomorrow, that was three days ago.”
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Trump said when he saw Fox News reporting on eight tankers sailing up the Hormuz Strait “loaded up with oil,” he concluded Iran meant it and that the U.S. is dealing with the right people.” He also explained in a back-and-forth with Witkoff that Iran gave the U.S. two additional ships as an apology for something that was said, which added up to a total of ten oil-carrying boats.
The blockage of the strait caused U.S. gasoline prices to skyrocket to almost $4 per gallon as of Thursday, according to AAA. Oil prices have also risen on a global scale since the waterway is a critical oil chokepoint.
Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s power infrastructure on Saturday if it did not reopen the strait within two days. He said that his envoys were working on negotiations with a senior Iranian official, a claim which Iran denied.
Iranian officials accused Trump of making those claims in an attempt to ease the energy markets, according to Axios. An Israeli official said that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had been communicating with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament.
Trump said during the meeting that he thought oil prices and the stock market would be more negatively impacted because of the war.
“I thought the oil prices would go up more and I thought the stock market would go down more. It hasn’t been nearly as severe as I thought,” Trump said.
Iran said it is reviewing a plan put forth by the U.S. to end the war, though officials maintain they are not negotiating with the U.S.
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